


Beautiful Now

by meanderingmirth



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5656603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingmirth/pseuds/meanderingmirth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, to sum a high school crush up in a few words?</p><p>It. Sucks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beautiful Now

**Author's Note:**

> based off a nhyuk drabble I wrote a long long time ago about cheerleader N falling for volleyball player Hyuk and a really exasperated Hongbin trying to get them together. Now that we actually have cheerleader!N from Sassy Go Go, it seems like a good time to finish this story!
> 
> enjoy!

 

"Look at him,” Hakyeon sighed dreamily, chin propped up on his palm.

“No,” Hongbin grumbled, and stabs at the piece of chicken on his plate.

“He’s so handsome,” Hakyeon continued, not listening.

“Don’t really care.”

“I love the way he scrunches his nose when he laughs,” Hakyeon added, and Hongbin abandons his meal to look up in annoyance.

“He could have boogers streaming out of his nostrils and you’d still probably want to lick his face.”

“Oh my god,” Hakyeon said, finally turning around to properly face Hongbin, giving him his signature stank face. “Why did that thought even cross your mind?”

“Because your constant lovestruck chatter about Sanghyuk is as gross as streaming boogers,” Hongbin replied matter-of-factly, gesturing rudely with his fork. Hakyeon batted his hand down.

“Eat your damn chicken,” his friend complained, and then immediately went back to his staring at Sanghyuk with star-struck eyes, even as the younger boy was trying and failing to eat a giant sandwich while laughing at something Wonshik said.

“He’s so cute,” Hakyeon mumbled, and Hongbin wanted to cry.

“He looks like a baby that can’t shovel food into his own mouth, Hakyeon. If you’re not going to walk over there and feed him then shut up and eat your spaghetti.”

He probably deserved neck chop he gets a second later, but Hongbin maintains his stance on this whole shebang: that teensy-tiny, itty-bitty elementary school-kid crush Hakyeon claimed to have in the beginning has already spiralled way out of control.

+

Personally, Hongbin’s got nothing against Sanghyuk. The kid is tall, almost terrifyingly so, but he’s all smiles and from what Hongbin can see at the volleyball games, Sanghyuk’s somebody who gives his best and works well in a team. Given the chance, Hongbin thinks they’d probably get along quite well with each other.

But whether or not Sanghyuk likes him isn’t of any importance here: the only issue is  _Hakyeon_  doesn’t seem to think Sanghyuk would like him, and that in itself has put everything to a screeching halt.

“You could just go up and introduce yourself,” Hongbin said calmly, and Hakyeon whipped around to stare at Hongbin like his suggestion was to rip his beating heart out and present it to Sanghyuk instead of striking up a casual conversation.

“What would I even say?” Hakyeon cried, pulling at the hem of his grey t-shirt. The gym was noisy for a Wednesday afternoon; there were three teams booked for practice and even though nobody has really started doing anything intensive yet, the chatter from the sheer amount of people in one area had started to accumulate. The volleyball team had taken up the far end of the gym, doing laps around the space while the first-years set the nets up. Between them was the wrestling team rolling out their mats, and on the cheerleading team’s side, Hongbin straightened his legs from where he’s sitting on the ground, reaching for his toes as he stretched. Hakyeon had been doing some kind of weird yoga pose next to him before he got hopelessly distracted by Sanghyuk walking around with the sleeves of his t-shirt rolled up, showing off his shapely biceps. Again.

“I dunno, just introduce yourself and tell him he looks cool doing a spike or whatever.”

Hakyeon looked comedically horrified.

“But then he’ll know I l- _like_  him!”

Hongbin gave his friend a look. “That’s the point, Hakyeon.”

Hakyeon scowled and turned his nose up like a disgruntled cat. “No way. I won’t make a fool out of myself like this.”

“You won’t make a fool out of yourself,” Hongbin argued. “You’re just complimenting him! That’s not even remotely flirtatious!”

“But it’ll be so embarrassing,” Hakyeon mumbled, looking down dejectedly. “Sanghyuk doesn’t even know who I am, how random would it be for some random dude to just go up and say hello.”

“That’s usually how friendships are made. With communication and, oh, I don’t know, actual human interaction?” Hongbin suggested, waving his arms around a little to illustrate his point. He heard some giggling from the direction of the stands and sighed, dropping his hands. It was probably his small posse of fangirls, who were all mostly harmless, but still awkward to have following him and cooing over everything he does.

“You know, on second thought, I think I’m fine with staring from afar,” Hakyeon sighed forlornly, and went back to his stretches. Hongbin gaped at his friend, momentarily thrown by the uncharacteristically discouraged reaction on display. Hakyeon had always been the strongest physical embodiment of the  _can-do attitude!_ , which was saying something when Hongbin spent most of his mornings and afternoons surrounded by other equally upbeat and bouncy cheerleaders. Everything had begun to go downhill the moment Hakyeon spotted Sanghyuk leaping around the court for volleyball tryouts at the beginning of the year; Hongbin remembers that moment very specifically because Hakyeon had been so busy staring he’d dropped Hongbin on his ass while they were doing their stretches on the other side of the gym.

Maybe this is why he’s so invested in Hakyeon’s love life. Sanghyuk had better be worth falling smack onto the ground for.

“Don’t be so pessimistic,” Hongbin said instead, reaching over to pat the back of Hakyeon’s calf. “The right opportunity will come up. Until then, don’t stress about it and just jump onto the chance when it feels right, okay?”

Hakyeon blinked down at him, but a second later his face split into a wide grin and he threw himself down to the floor, sweeping Hongbin up into a hug.

“You’re so sweet to me, Binnie,” Hakyeon cried. “What will I do without you?”

“A whole lot of troublesome things, that’s for sure,” Hongbin grunted, whacking half-heartedly at Hakyeon. “Now let go before I die.”

“I think you’re right,” Hakyeon said, looking dramatically off into the distance as he clenched his fist with resolve. Hongbin followed his line of sight and got an unnecessary eyeful of wrestlers in tight spandex. “Serendipity is what I need. The chance to talk to Sanghyuk will come at its own time, and when it does, that is when I’ll embrace it!”

“Of course,” Hongbin agreed all too readily. “And you never know, it’ll probably be a complete surprise.”

+

“I need you to plan a surprise party,” Hongbin said urgently to Wonshik exactly three days later. Wonshik blinked at him, thrown by the sudden request, and Hongbin stared back, unwavering. “Please,” he tacked on as an afterthought, and Wonshik rolled his eyes.

“Okay,” Wonshik said slowly, sorting through the practice balls. The two of them were huddled behind the volleyball cart, pretending to check the balls for any deflation. That was what Wonshik was supposed to be doing anyway, but Hongbin poked and prodded all the same, not really wanting anybody to question why one of the cheerleaders was nosing around on the volleyball team’s side of the gym. “Is there any particular reason why you suddenly need a party? Just ‘cause, you know, it’s not like asking me to loan you notes for biology or lend you a shirt. A good party takes planning.”

“The party could be the most abysmal get-together for all I care. So long as Hakyeon and Sanghyuk gets hitched in some way it’ll be a god damned heyday for me.”

Wonshik snorted. “Aw, c’mon Bin, leave the man be. He can have a crush on our team baby if he wants to.”

Hongbin glared. “Be quiet, Kim Wonshik. You’re the one who doesn’t understand. Hakyeon isn’t having a crush anymore, he’s  _pining_.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly,” Hongbin said, yanking his knee support out of his pocket for dramatic flair. “I caught him writing poetry in independent study period the other day. Real, honest-to-god poetry.”

“Really? What did he write?” Wonshik asked, actually intrigued, and Hongbin wrinkled his nose.

“I dunno, something about fate and not being able to live in the moment, and this really specific line about ‘ _you’re my one and only destiny, the only one whom I’ll want to have history_ ’— but why does that even matter!” he cried, whacking Wonshik on the shoulder with his knee support when Wonshik laughed. “All I know is that if Hakyeon doesn’t get his shit together, he is probably going to drop Eunji on her ass during a lift and that won’t do anybody any favours.”

“Fair enough,” Wonshik hummed. “Okay, well, is there anybody who has a birthday coming up? Or, like, I dunno, a pet with a birthday?”

“No idea. Too bad yours already ended,” Hongbin shrugged.

“Pretty sure the hangover I got the day after that party never did,” Wonshik sighed, rubbing his temples.

“What about Jaehwan? Isn’t his birthday in like, a week or something?” Hongbin asked, glancing over at the bench. The volleyball team’s manager, Lee Jaehwan, was currently sitting on one of the benches with a clipboard and the day’s play in hand, surrounded by several gigantic players all clustered around to listen. Sanghyuk was amongst them, and he had his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration as Jaehwan pointed at diagrams with his pen.

“Jaehwan? He’s doesn’t usually do parties,” Wonshik said, frowning.

“Too late, he’s getting a party now, and it’s going to be a surprise one while we’re at it,” Hongbin said dryly, trying to slide his knee support over his leg properly while talking. “Just make sure you extend the invite to the cheerleading team, alright?”

“But then the rugby team will want in too,” Wonshik groaned. “And they’re so rowdy. I hate cleaning up after them.”

“I’ll buy you lunch for a week.”

Wonshik eyed him, sizing the offer up. “And you help me clean up the morning after.”

“Deal,” Hongbin nodded. “Assuming we’re still alive the morning after.”

“More like afternoon after—” Wonshik began, but then the colour drained out of his face so quickly Hongbin thought his friend might faint.

“What—” he started to say, and then an ominous presence loomed over them. He gulped, turning around very slowly.

His field of view first met with a jet black shirt stretched over a broad chest, then up a pale column of neck, past the surprisingly small mouth before meeting a pair of dark eyes glaring him and Wonshik down. Hongbin let out a weak little wheeze of terror.

Behind him, Wonshik managed to say, “Oh, hey, Captain,” without sounded like he wanted to die on the spot. Just barely. Or maybe not.

Jung Taekwoon, poker-faced volleyball captain and athlete extraordinaire, lifted an eyebrow and Wonshik was already tripping over his own feet to wheel the volleyball carts away, leaving Hongbin to wilt when Taekwoon’s gaze swept onto him next.

“You’re not on the volleyball team,” Taekwoon said, feather-soft voice carrying the lightest hint of reprimand in it, and Hongbin tried to laugh it off. The sound came out awkwardly high-pitched.

“Uh, no, I’m not. Sorry about that. I’ll just... leave. Yeah. I’ll go,” he said hurriedly, turning on his heel to hobble away. He’d barely gone two steps before Taekwoon called him back.

“Hey!”

Hongbin froze, gazing over his shoulder nervously. Taekwoon was pointing at his knee.

“Your support is on backwards,” he said before walking off, leaving Hongbin to gape in confusion before redirecting his gaze down at his leg.

Backwards.

Right.

Flushing, Hongbin adjusted the material haphazardly before jogging over to where some of the other cheerleaders were doing burpies for warm-ups. Hakyeon was by himself in a corner, earphones in his ears as he stretched.

“Oh, there you are,” Hakyeon said when Hongbin joined him on the mat. “That was a long bathroom break.”

“I got caught up,” Hongbin grumbled, and Hakyeon laughed.

“If you say so,” he snickered, and Hongbin punched him in the shoulder. On the other side of the gym, the tell-tale slam of volleyballs meeting the floor began to echo as the players began to practice their hits, and he caught sight of Jung Taekwoon take a running leap up to the net before smashing a ball right into the corner of the other side of the court. It looked powerful and terrifying.

Hongbin shivered and flopped backwards onto the mats, ignoring Hakyeon’s squawk for him to stretch properly. That party had better be worth all the trouble he’s going through for this.

+

The great thing about Wonshik is, when he parties, he  _really_  parties. Thus, on a nice Saturday evening, the volleyball team manager was surprised with an extravagant bash complete with chips of every flavour (ripped off the shelves of the closest grocery store) and an abundance of beers, but nothing harder than that. Wonshik is also incredibly lucky his parents stayed in a condo downtown for work and his sister lives in a dorm at an all girls’ school, which usually left him with an empty house to play loud music in at odd hours of the day and for equally odd parties.

“Oh, wow,” Jaehwan said when everybody leapt out from behind the couch, tables, and various potted plants around the room, screaming “SURPRISE!” at various volumes. “You guys do know my birthday isn’t for another month, right?”

Nobody listened, and the next second Jaehwan was swept off to the kitchen for food while somebody decided to change the music and blast really crappy dubstep instead.

“Wait, when the hell is Jaehwan’s birthday then?” Hongbin hissed, grabbing Wonshik by the sleeve as they squeezed through the crowd for pizza.

“April,” Wonshik replied, and Hongbin punched him in the arm.

“What! It’s the first week of March right now! Why didn’t you say anything? This whole party doesn’t make sense anymore!”

“You told me you didn’t care how bad the party was so long as we somehow manage to get Hakyeon and Sanghyuk acquainted,” Wonshik protested, and Hongbin scowled.

“Damn your good memory. C’mon, I need to detach the man of the hour from the cheerleading team and get him over here.”

“Bring him over to the dining room,” Wonshik called. “Some of the volleyball guys are playing President and Sanghyuk’s sitting there too.”

“Alright,” Hongbin nodded, and turned to squeeze through a throng of people to find Hakyeon, who’s chatting with some older students Hongbin doesn’t recognize.

“Hey,” he called, yanking on Hakyeon’s arm. “Some guys are playing a card game and they need an extra person, let’s go.”

“What?” Hakyeon pouted. “I don’t like card games.”

“Trust,” Hongbin muttered, dragging Hakyeon to his feet anyway. “You’ll like this one.”

“Pardon me?”

“Nothing,” Hongbin sighed, pulling Hakyeon towards the direction of the dining room. “Here were are...”

There were, indeed, the majority of the starting players of the volleyball team seated around Wonshik’s oval dinner table. A pack of dog-eared cards was in the process of passed around, but there was hardly any space left for two more players.

“Oh, hey, it’s Hongbin!” Gongchan yelled. “Why didn’t you bring any of the female cheerleaders with you?”

“Do you have a problem with me?” Hakyeon demanded, starting forwards, and Hongbin grabbed him back by the arm as everybody laughed. Gongchan pretended to cower behind his drink as Hongbin scanned the table desperately for Sanghyuk. It wasn’t difficult to find the first-year giant even amongst the tallest volleyball players, but when Hongbin spotted him his heart sank. Sanghyuk was already sitting on the more crowded side of the table, watching Hongbin wrestle Hakyeon with a surprisingly starstruck expression on his face.

“Can we make some room for these guys?” Wonshik said, eyeing his teammates, and Hongbin wanted to smack his head on the table. This was gonna be awkward.

But then, to Hongbin’s utter surprise, Taemin suddenly stood and began to squeeze his way out of the crowd. “Here, take my place, Hakyeon,” he called. “I’m gonna go get food before I play.”

Hakyeon whipped around to gape at Taemin while Sanghyuk jerked his head up, giving his teammate a pleading look. But Taemin just winked (Hongbin wasn’t sure to who) and disappeared from the dining room, humming cheerfully to himself while the other volleyball players all gave each other side-glances and little elbows nudges. It was weird, but he didn’t stop to question it. Ignoring the half-formed protests coming out of Hakyeon’s stammering mouth, Hongbin shoved his friend forwards and down into the recently vacated seat without an ounce of mercy. Sanghyuk blinked at his new neighbour, and Hakyeon proceeded to give Sanghyuk an incredibly awkward smile that looked more like a desperate grimace before hiding his face behind Taemin’s abandoned cards. Sanghyuk stared at Hakyeon for another second before he looked back at his hand, expression carefully neutral, and that’s when Hongbin saw the brilliant red staining the very tips of Sanghyuk’s ears.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

So that was how things were, Hongbin realized, and it was like the rain clouds looming over him for the past semester had finally cleared up to reveal a beautiful, gorgeously sunny day. All the conspiracy between the volleyball guys and that rather cute blush. Sanghyuk  _liked_  Hakyeon back.

A solution to this whole crush fiasco was suddenly very plausible.

“Oi, Bin, are you gonna play?” Wonshik called, and Hongbin blinked.

“What? I—”

He felt a hand on his elbow before he felt the sharp tug, and the next thing he knew he was stumbling into a seat next to Taekwoon, nearly tipping into the older student because of the unexpected movement. Hongbin straightened himself immediately, stuttering an apology. Taekwoon ignored it and pushed a stack of cards into Hongbin’s hands instead.

Hongbin stared.

Taekwoon fanned his own cards open and gave them a cursory glance before looking back at Hongbin. “We need one more player,” he said simply before nodding at Wonshik to start. Hongbin gulped.

“Right,” he muttered, sighing internally as he looked down at his own cards.

He didn’t even know how to play President.

+

Twenty minutes into the game had resulted in Hongbin’s steady demotion to last place as the Bum, with Hakyeon and all his jitters and nerves, in second last place. Hongbin would be a little more ticked at his losses if it didn’t look like there was some kind of progress going on between Hakyeon and Sanghyuk, who had the Vice-President position. Last place and second last places had to give away their best cards to the President and Vice-President, respectively, which meant that between those two there was a lot of fumbling, blushing and stammering “thanks” exchanged. Wonshik was watching the pair while shaking his head ever so slightly, a look of fond exasperation on his face that Hongbin was not feeling. He was honestly glad Hakyeon might finally stop whining to him about not being able to speak to Sanghyuk, even if the cost of his personal pride was the price he was going to pay.

But then, there was the penalty for being in last place, so maybe he wasn’t that glad overall.

“Okay, this sounds like a fair and decent penalty for the bum,” Gongchan announced, dashing in from the kitchen. He set a tall glass filled with a liquid of a worrying shade of green onto the table, and everybody began passing it down towards Hongbin. “Chug this, and that’s it.”

“What the hell  _is_  that,” Hongbin demanded with severe trepidation, eyeing the drink while edging away in the other direction.

“Don’t worry, it’s not poisonous,” somebody yelled from, which did absolutely nothing to alleviate Hongbin’s worries. The drink made it around to his side of the table. Hakyeon leaned over to whisper mournfully, “Nice knowing you.” Hongbin shoved him back towards Sanghyuk.

When the drink stopped before Taekwoon, the captain turned to Hongbin, who felt to need to advert his eyes a little. He’d never really interacted with the volleyball captain aside from running into each other through the change rooms or down the halls while they headed to different classes. He wondered, a little fervently, how the volleyball team could stand such a serious stare all the time.

“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to,” Taekwoon suddenly said, his voice so quiet that only Hongbin could hear him. He glanced up, surprised. Taekwoon’s face remained stoic as ever, but there was a glimmer of concern in his eyes. “I can tell them to stop.”

Hongbin stared back, blinking as he took in Taekwoon’s words. Taekwoon, who was watching him with a very serious look that seemed just a bit too serious for a penalty game, and Hongbin felt his cheeks colour.

“It’s okay,” he whispered back, flashing Taekwoon a weak grin. “It can’t be that bad.”

Taekwoon seemed to consider him for a moment before he nodded. Pale, slender fingers pushed the glass towards him, and Hongbin sighed, accepting his fate. Hoots echoed around the table as he picked up the horrible drink and sniffed it cautiously. Nasty, he decided with a grimace.

“Plug your nose,” Hakyeon advised, and Hongbin gave him his signature stink eye. Sanghyuk was leaning forwards as well, watching Hongbin with wide eyes, his chin nearly touching Hakyeon’s shoulder.

At least there’s progress, Hongbin thought wistfully as he took his friend’s advice and pinched his nose shut. Praying it might just be matcha green tea powder, he tipped the glass back and swallowed.

A second later, the glass toppled over, spilling its contents across the wood as the teenagers around the table exploded with screams, pounded the surface with their fists and hollered while Hongbin bolted for the bathroom, nearly tripping over his own feet as he clapped his hands over his burning mouth and gagged.

_Wasabi._

Of fucking course.

+

Come Monday and Hakyeon was still gazing longingly at Sanghyuk, Hongbin was still glaring irritably at Hakyeon, Wonshik was now watching them with a very confused look on his face, and Sanghyuk was frowning obliviously down at his math textbook a few tables away, twirling a pencil as he scrambled to finish his homework before fifth period.

He takes it all back. There was literally no progress at all.

Hakyeon sighed, continuously missing his bite of spring roll because his fork kept drooping, and Hongbin made a furious noise in the back of his throat before he grabbed Hakyeon’s wrist and shoved the bit of vegetarian roll into his friend’s open mouth. Hakyeon spluttered in surprise and spun around to glare at Hongbin.

“Ewas wash dat for?!”

“You’re drooling again,” Hongbin said nastily, grabbing Hakyeon’s shoulders so he could give him a shake. “Pull it together, man!”

Hakyeon squinted at him, his fork dangling out of his mouth. “ ‘mf fine.”

“You’ve been trying to eat the same piece of spring roll for the past five minutes.”

Hakyeon looked down and scowled at his lunch. “Fine,” he mumbled again, yanking his fork out so he could chew. Hongbin dropped his head into his arms and groaned.

“For the love of all things good, Hakyeon, why don’t you just go up and say hi?”

“But—”

“No buts!” Hongbin fairly shrieked, managing to attract the attention of almost everybody on their end of the cafeteria. Even Taekwoon, who was wearing headphones and reading by the window, looked up and stared at Hongbin. He flushed and tried to ignore some of the giggling fanclub members watching him a few feet away. “You got a chance to talk to Sanghyuk at that party on the weekend, right?”

“Yes,” Hakyeon mumbled. “You were there.”

“I know I was there,” Hongbin said shortly, horrible images of green liquid coming to mind. He blocked it out fervently. “And you got to chat with Sanghyuk, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Was he a mean guy?”

“No...”

“Did he make fun of you for chatting to him?”

“No, he didn’t—”

“Then go over there and say hi again,” Hongbin said lowly, leaning over to push Hakyeon off his seat. Unsurprisingly, he was met with extreme resistance. “Bring your lunch with you or whatever. Just go over there right now, and make some kind of interaction or so help me god, you will feel my wrath. And you do  _not_  want to feel the wrath.”

“What am I even gonna say to him?” Hakyeon cried, clawing at the bench in a brave attempt to stop Hongbin from pushing him off. In turn, Hongbin braced his foot against the whole leg of the table, shoved  _hard_ , and sent Hakyeon toppling over the side with a yelp. The whole cafeteria turned to stare at them again. Wonshik covered his face with this palm.

“You’re the worst,” Hakyeon whined, scrambling to his feet with a teary-eyed look. Hongbin remained resolutely unmoved, even if Hakyeon was looking at him with utter betrayal. “The worst, Hongbinnie!”

“You’ll thank me later,” Hongbin said firmly. “Now go meet your destiny, the only guy with whom you’ll want history with, or some shit.”

Now Hakyeon looked positively scandalized. “Have you been snooping around in my notebook—!”

“Tell Sanghyuk you can help him out with math,” Wonshik interrupted, barely managing to save Hongbin from what might’ve been the most ferocious neck chop he’d receive to date. “You’re good at math, right?”

Hakyeon sniffed. “Top of the class,” he said stiffly.

“Good,” Wonshik said. “Please go help Sanghyuk, because if his grades drop any more he’s gonna get suspended from the team, and Taekwoon is  _not_  going to be happy about that with preliminaries right around the corner. Just tell him I sent you or something.”

“Fine,” Hakyeon groused, bending to grab his food and backpack. His disgruntlement with Hongbin seemed to have given him indignant courage. “Goodbye, horrendous traitors.”

“We’re doing this because we love you!” Hongbin yelled after him, and sighed when he heard muffled squeals coming from the table over. He caught Taekwoon’s eye and he couldn’t help but flush, feeling silly over the outburst that everybody had undoubtably heard. Hongbin redirected his gaze down at his own sandwich and wished he could have the worries of a piece of lettuce. Lettuce didn’t have to deal with lovestruck friends.

“The situation is more dire than I thought it would be,” Wonshik announced at large, poking at his fried egg rolls.

“I know right?” Hongbin groaned, pushing his hair back from his face. “He’s hopeless.”

“I’m not talking about Hakyeon,” Wonshik said cryptically, spearing his food with his chopsticks. Hongbin blinked at him as Wonshik ate his lunch, making his cheeks bulge with the bite.

“Then who the heck are you talking about?” he asked, confused, and Wonshik shrugged with annoying vagueness. “Oi!”

Another stifled giggle sounded off to the side, and Hongbin fought not to react to the girls. They meant no harm, really, but it was still odd having a whole party of people find everything he did and say cute or adorable or whisper-worthy. Most of the school was used to his little posse, but every once in a while he’d still get looks, like the ones Taekwoon was still shooting him from across the cafeteria. Hongbin got the impression it was an impassive but slightly judge-y stare. He looked back at Wonshik, who blinked innocently at him.

“To be young and in love,” the vollyeball player said sappily, and Hongbin rolled his eyes.

Four tables over, Hakyeon had taken a seat next to Sanghyuk, where he deposited his box of spring rolls next to Sanghyuk’s open textbook on mind-numbingly dull polynomials.

+

Unfortunately for them all, volleyball preliminaries was not the only sporting event right around the corner. Hongbin had seen the sheer amount of students bombarding the poor gym teachers in the office and the halls, trying to book time slots for practice. The cheerleading team had managed to secure a few spots for the next couple of weeks, alternating between morning and afternoon practices until their first qualifying competition, but there were only a few of them that coincided with the volleyball team. Hakyeon sulked, but his focus also seemed to improve without Sanghyuk’s thighs to distract him. Or maybe it was just the pre-competition crunch. Hongbin’s certainly feeling the pressure; the team managers had banned his little fangroup from sitting in on practices already, which was a sure sign that they should all be revving their engines and getting ready to go.

He stumbled out of the gym late one afternoon, freshly showered and muscles aching. He grimaced at the twinge in his knee, which throbbed despite the support wrapped around it. He was going to ask Hakyeon to borrow his muscle cream, but Hakyeon had bailed nearly the moment after practice ended, saying something about meeting Sanghyuk at the library, leaving Hongbin shirtless and gaping after his friend. They’d been meeting up a lot recently to cram for Sanghyuk’s midterm. Hongbin had studied with them once and vowed never to do so again; the combination of mental pressure, Sanghyuk’s internal focus and Hakyeon’s near-impossible goal of teaching Sanghyuk two month’s worth of material in two weeks was enough to crack him. But his friend had literally walked out with a bounce in each step, so eager to see Sanghyuk, and Hongbin didn’t have the heart to stop him.

He was rounding the corner and fumbling with his music player when he collided headlong into someone turning the same way. Hongbin stumbled backwards onto his butt, nearly dropping his music player as he went down. Fortunately, a pale hand shot out the same time he made a desperate grab, and both of them caught the device before it could hit the ground. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sorry,” Hongbin said sheepishly, and looked up only to find himself staring at Taekwoon. Unexpectedly, his cheeks coloured, and he wilted a little under Taekwoon’s stare. “Er... are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Taekwoon replied, his voice soft as he extended his other hand to Hongbin. Swallowing nervously, he took the proffered hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. The hand Taekwoon had on his music player moved away, and Hongbin had to suppress a jump when he realized Taekwoon’s hand had been holding his own when they both grabbed for the device. He quickly tucked it away inside his pocket.

“You’re here late,” he said, tilting his head at Taekwoon, who hummed and nodded.

“I left something in the workout room,” Taekwoon said, gesturing towards the doorway on the other side of the hallway, across from the boy’s change room. “My own music player, in fact.”

“Oh,” Hongbin said, watching Taekwoon walk over and push the door open. Upbeat music blared obnoxiously as the older student searched through the cubbies by the doorway until he located a small device, the same lightweight kind Hongbin’s sister uses when she went jogging. “What kind of music do you listen to?” he asked curiously when Taekwoon stepped out of the workout room, shutting the door behind him with a click.

“Ballads, mostly,” Taekwoon said, his soft voice airy in the open atrium when they left the gym hall and made their way into the mostly empty school. Anybody with time on their hands would’ve either gone to the library to study or left to do whatever other activity they liked. “But I listen to a lot of cardio music for workouts, and some demo tracks of my own or the ones Wonshik mixes for me.”

“You make your own music?” Hongbin asked, unable to hide his surprise or the note of awe in his tone. Taekwoon’s lips twitched, like he was amused.

“I do. I take musical composition classes with Wonshik.”

“That’s impressive,” Hongbin said, eyes wide. “I learned how to play the guitar because of the mandatory arts credit in first year, but I haven’t been able to keep up because I’m always at practice.”

“Competitions are coming up,” Taekwoon agreed. “It’s natural to want to spend a lot of time practicing, but it’s also good to take breaks as well.” He gave a pointed look to Hongbin’s knee, and Hongbin grimaced.

“Is it that obvious?”

“You’re limping,” Taekwoon said, rummaging inside his duffle bag. “It’s a slight one, but it’s there. How did you hurt yourself?”

“I fell during the semifinals last year,” Hongbin admitted, shielding his eyes from the late afternoon sun as they exited the school. “It healed, but lately it’s been acting up again.”

“It’s overwork,” Taekwoon said as they came to a halt at the strip of sidewalk in front of the school. He glanced at Hongbin, who jerked his head towards the right.

“I’m headed this way,” he said. “You go down that street?”

“I take the bus,” Taekwoon said, pointing towards his left, and Hongbin made a generic ‘ah’ of understanding.

“Guess I’ll see you around then,” he said, giving a little wave. Taekwoon’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the wrist, making Hongbin jump in shock. A small, cylindrical object pressed into his palm and he closed his fingers instinctively around it, goosebumps travelling up his arm when he felt Taekwoon’s slim fingers brush against his. Taekwoon released him then, apparently satisfied, and pulled a pair of earphones out of his bag.

“See you,” he said amicably, and was already walking away on long legs before Hongbin could say goodbye. Completely confused, he watched Taekwoon until he faded away from sight. Then he looked down at his hand, wondering what on earth the volleyball captain could have left with him.

Hongbin stared.

It was a little tin of muscle cream.

+

It was the week before the first round of volleyball preliminaries that marked an unusual disruption in the cafeteria’s seating arrangements. For some reason, the entire volleyball team was gathered in one tiny table, all of them sitting in various states of restlessness. Integrated amongst them were two male members of the cheerleading team: Hakyeon, who looked unbelievably stressed, and Hongbin, who was squashed next to a rather serene Taekwoon and looking like he didn’t quite know why he was there.

“He’s late,” Jaehwan whined, sucking on his carton of mango milk.

“Class just ended,” Wonshik pointed out. “The rest of y’all just booked it for the cafeteria like hell was on your heels.”

“That’s because this is important!” Jaehwan yelled, shaking his fist. “Today’s midterm reports day! If Sanghyukkie doesn’t pass and gets suspended from the team, we’ll never make it past preliminaries!”

“What are the rest of us, dust bunnies?” Gongchan complained, gesturing to the whole team. Taekwoon turned the page to his notes and Hongbin sighed, subtly adjusting the knee support under his uniform.

“Can’t we just blame Hakyeon for this if Sanghyuk doesn’t pass?” Minhyuk asked teasingly, and Hakyeon smacked his arm.

“I’m an amazing tutor, so shut up,” he growled.

“Are you sure tutoring is all you two did?” someone called from the crowd, and Hakyeon flushed, glaring as the team laughed until Taekwoon told them all to quiet down. But the moment was short-lived, because a second later the cafeteria doors busted open and Sanghyuk bounded in, all one hundred and eighty-four centimetres of athletic physique flying towards them.

“Eighty-nine percent! I got an eighty-nine!” he hollered, waving his test at them, and the table practically erupted. Hongbin looked up in alarm as he vanished from sight behind a solid wall of bodies that knocked chairs aside and made their lunches rattle on the table when the volleyball team began banging on the tabletop, cheering their youngest teammate on as he raced over.

But it was Hakyeon Sanghyuk ran to first, and it was also Hakyeon he tackled with a giant hug, nearly crushing the older boy into oblivion against his broad chest. Hongbin could barely stifle a snicker when he saw Hakyeon’s wide eyes peering over the crook of Sanghyuk’s elbow before he hugged back, lean arms circling around Sanghyuk’s back. When the two of them stepped apart, Sanghyuk looked a little abashed and Hakyeon was swaying slightly on his feet, a dazed expression on his face. His bangs were rucked up and he was blushing up to his hairline.

“Thanks for tutoring me,” Sanghyuk said sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. The fact that his teammates were pounding on his back went largely unnoticed, and it was so loud Hongbin nearly missed Sanghyuk’s next question.

“Would you, um, like to go grab lunch with me, to celebrate?”

The volleyball team seemed to freeze as a whole. In that short moment of suspense that felt more like an entire hour’s worth of slow motion, Hongbin’s jaw dropped and Wonshik’s hands flew up, his eyes wide with anticipation. Was this the moment they’d all been waiting for?

If Hakyeon’s face had been red before, then it was a blazing beacon now when he clapped his hands over his mouth, flustered unnecessarily for a second, and then finally replied, “Yes, sure, that’d be great,” behind his palms.

Sanghyuk grinned widely now, incredibly boyish and sweet as he pulled Hakyeon’s hands into his own giant ones, and all hell broke loose. Wonshik pounded his fists against the table. Sungjae was on the floor, flailing. The rest of the volleyball team was just  _screaming_. Hongbin watched as the new couple grabbed their bags and ducked out of the cafeteria, with Sanghyuk flashing a discreet little victory ‘V’ at them as they left. Or maybe it wasn’t that discreet, because Hakyeon whacked Sanghyuk’s hand down before taking it in his own.

“Unbelievable,” Hongbin spluttered, still in shock. The whole cafeteria was watching them lose their shit, and he couldn’t even bring himself to laugh at how dramatic this all was.

“Our team baby just got hitched!” Jaehwan was sobbing into Wonshik’s shoulder. “I’m so emotional right now!”

“There there, team worrywart,” Wonshik said, completely unperturbed even as Jaehwan pretended to blow his nose into his sweater. “You’ll get over it.”

“ _Unbelievable_ ,” Hongbin said again. He was aware of Taekwoon watching him very closely.

“Thought you’d be happier than this,” Wonshik said, raising an eyebrow. “Or are you in shock?”

“Are you kidding me? This is the best day of my life,” Hongbin cried, scrunching his hands as he yelled up to the ceiling and the heavens beyond it. “My prayers have been answered! They’re finally together! Now Hakyeon can stop asking me for scrap paper to write his lame poetry on!”

There was a rustle of paper next to him, and Hongbin turned to see Taekwoon closing his notebook, a rather confused expression on his face.

“You’re... happy for them?” he asked Hongbin, who blinked back.

“Well, duh,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get Hakyeon to at least talk to Sanghyuk since the beginning of the year. His crush had gone completely off the charts.”

Taekwoon glanced towards the cafeteria doors, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he asked blankly, “Hakyeon... likes  _Sanghyuk_?”

Hongbin stared at him. “Where have you been for the past ten minutes?”

Taekwoon didn’t reply; instead, he turned to Wonshik and gave him a look Hongbin couldn’t see. Wonshik just stared nonchalantly back, patting a wiggling Jaehwan on the head while trying to stop the manager from jacking his wallet.

“Taekwoon?” Hongbin asked, and Taekwoon twitched in his seat. He looked rather distracted. 

“I’ll be back,” he mumbled, gathering his notebook up before jetting out of the cafeteria as well. Hongbin watched him go, wide-eyed, and turned back to Wonshik.

“What the heck was that all about?”

Wonshik shrugged, mysterious as ever, but the smirk on his face was one of intense satisfaction.

“Love never rests,” he answered Hongbin, and got a water bottle flung into his face for his troubles.

+

He couldn’t stop thinking about Taekwoon’s reaction for the next few days, and to Hongbin’s utmost horror, realization hit him like a punch to the gut during practice one afternoon.

Taekwoon’s confusion the other day with Hakyeon and Sanghyuk getting together, him leaving so quickly after they left— it could only mean one thing:  _Taekwoon_  had a crush on Hakyeon too.

This is all so melodramatic, Hongbin thought fervently to himself, eyes wide as he contemplated the new thought in the midst of his physics homework at the study carrels in the library. Was this going to be some horribly clichéd love triangle? Would Taekwoon be upset now that Hakyeon and Sanghyuk were dating? Would this affect their team dynamics? It was hard to imagine Taekwoon being lovestruck, but hey, the more Hongbin talked to the guy the more he realized Taekwoon was actually a very affected individual who took everything quite seriously and was just wasn’t all that expressive around people he didn’t know.

A poke to his side jolted him out of his thoughts, and Hongbin whirled around to squint at Wonshik, who was studying at the carrel next to his.

“What?” he mouthed, mindful of the grey-haired, stern-faced librarian who prowled the shelves and desks, hunting for talking students. His face felt hot, which was ridiculous, really, because Wonshik wouldn’t know he was thinking about Taekwoon instead of Newton.

“Do you have whiteout?” Wonshik whispered, giving him an apologetic grin. Faint rap music sounded from the headphones around his neck as he leaned over into Hongbin’s space. Hongbin nodded, reaching into his backpack. He reached in and pulled out a handful of miscellaneous objects, sorting through pens, a pack of sticky notes and the tangled wire of his charger until Wonshik suddenly stopped him.

“Where’d you get that?” Wonshik asked, voice pitched as low as he could as he pointed at the little metal tin in Hongbin’s pile of stuff. He blinked.

“That’s— that’s Taekwoon’s muscle cream,” he said, turning it over in surprise. “Shoot, I forgot I had it.”

“ _Taekwoon_  loaned you his muscle cream?” Wonshik asked, a gleeful expression on his face. Hongbin didn’t really want to know why he looked so happy.

“Yes? He lent it to me after I told him about my knee,” he said. “Could you give it back to him for me? I would do it myself but the cheerleading team doesn’t have afternoon practices until next week and sometimes we miss each other in the halls—”

“I can’t,” Wonshik interrupts immediately. “You gotta give it back to him yourself.”

“What? Why?” Hongbin asks, furrowing his eyebrows. “But what if he needs it?”

“It’ll be okay, trust me, you have to be the one to give it to him,” Wonshik says, and Hongbin’s starting to grow a little suspicious of his insistence. “He doesn’t like it when the person who borrows his stuff doesn’t return it themselves,” Wonshik adds quickly, catching his expression. “Taekwoon thinks that’s irresponsible.”

“Uh... okay,” Hongbin frowns. “But he’ll have to wait till next week then, unless I find him in class.”

“You could do that,” Wonshik agrees, bobbing his head up and down so quickly his earrings wobbled in his earlobes. “He’s in class 3B.”

Hongbin blinks. Hakyeon was also in that class.

“I guess I’ll pop in during break to give it back to him,” Hongbin shrugs, turning the little tin over in his hand. He couldn’t possibly fathom why Taekwoon would be so uptight about him asking Wonshik to return his cream, but then again, it could just be a weird pet peeve.

“You go do that,” Wonshik agrees all too readily, but the look of amusement on his face quickly morphs into horror when a gnarled hand comes down on his shoulder. Hongbin jerks in his seat when a similar, claw-like grip latches onto him as well.

Turning slowly, he stared up into the face of the terrifying librarian and the hunks of glass perched on her nose, which enlarged her eyeballs by several sizes. He barely managed to wrestle down his scream as her hands tightened on his shoulder and gathered the fabric of his uniform up in a bunch. Next to him, Wonshik let out a hastily muffled shriek of alarm.

“ _There. Is. No. Talking. In. The. Library!”_

+

When he ran up to the third floor the next day during the first break of the school day, tiny tin cream in hand, Hongbin was surprised and also not-so surprised to see Sanghyuk standing in the doorway of classroom 3B.

“Oh, hello,” Sanghyuk said, grinning at Hongbin. “What’re you doing up here?”

“I have something to return to your captain,” Hongbin said, showing Sanghyuk the tin. Sanghyuk blinked, and then his eyebrows went right up.

“Taekwoon’s muscle cream? Where’d you get that?”

“He loaned it to me,” Hongbin answered. Did everybody on the team know what kind of product Taekwoon used or something? But then again, everybody in the cheer team knew which shower stall Hakyeon used last because of the overwhelming scent of passion fruit and citrus pouring from it, so it might just be their thing.

“Are you serious?” Sanghyuk exclaimed. “Taekwoon never lets any one of us use it!”

“Eh?” Hongbin asks, watching Sanghyuk puff his cheeks out.

“It’s a really good sports brand. We used to bug him all the time whenever we had muscle aches after practice, but Taekwoon just whacks us on the head and tells us to suck it up,” Sanghyuk complained.

“I... did not know that,” Hongbin admitted. He’d always thought that it was rather nice of Taekwoon to loan him such a nice balm, even if it had been done rather randomly. But now that he knows how territorial Taekwoon is about his things, it made the exchange even stranger.

“You’re lucky,” Sanghyuk pouts, nudging Hongbin in the arm as he opened the classroom door. “Taekwoon probably really likes you if he’s willing to actually give you his stuff.”

“Yeah,” Hongbin laughs awkwardly as he follows Sanghyuk in, his heart skipping a little in his chest. “Maybe?”

He spotted Hakyeon sitting at his desk with some of his classmates surrounding him, workbooks open to some reading comprehension homework. He’s fidgety around his seniors, especially when he recognizes several of them from his little fanclub near the back, but Sanghyuk fearlessly skipped ahead and accosted Hakyeon with a heavy arm around him.

“Aww,” one of the girls cooed at them. “What a cute couple!”

“I’m not cute,” Sanghyuk said as he plops his chin onto Hakyeon’s head. Underneath him, Hakyeon was grinning and blushing and holding onto Sanghyuk’s hands. Nauseating is probably more accurate, Hongbin thought, but he couldn’t help but walk over to give Hakyeon a fond flick on the forehead.

“Ow! What was that for!” Hakyeon yelped, trying to bat Hongbin away. But Sanghyuk, bless him, had Hakyeon’s hands engulfed in his much larger ones and he held him fast.

“That’s for putting me through so many months of misery watching you pine like a dork,” he told Hakyeon, ignoring the way Hakeyon’s face turns even redder when Sanghyuk asked gleefully, “You were pining for me?”

“What are you even doing here,” Hakyeon grumbled, squirming around in his seat, and Hongbin remembers his original goal.

“I’m looking for Taekwoon,” he said, and Hakyeon lifted an eyebrow.

“He’s sitting in the back,” his friend replied, jerking his thumb towards the end of the class. Hongbin followed the motion and indeed, Taekwoon was sitting at a desk by the window, scrolling through his phone with his headphones in. He ducked around Hakyeon’s crowded desk and squeezed down the aisle, trying to ignore the giggling girls watching him go. He stopped next to Taekwoon’s desk, and the older student finally looked up then.

“Hi,” Hongbin said, giving Taekwoon a little wave. Taekwoon pulled his headphones out of his ears and set them down.

“Hello,” he answered, voice soft. It was always a little surprising for him to hear such a dulcet tone coming from such a serious face, but maybe that’s one of Taekwoon’s charms. Hongbin certainly didn’t mind the gentler voice when all of his friends were loud and preppy.

“I wanted to return this,” he said, holding out the cream to Taekwoon. “Thanks for loaning it to me, it was really helpful.”

Taekwoon blinked and took the tin from Hongbin, turning it over in agile fingers.

“Is your knee any better?” he asked, and Hongbin nodded.

“I’m still wearing my support to practice, but yeah, it’s stopped aching so much. This stuff is really good.”

“I’m glad it helped,” Taekwoon said, the corners of his mouth turning upwards. A sudden burst of noise from the front of the room caught their attention, and Hongbin looked over his shoulder to see Hakyeon squishing Sanghyuk’s cheeks together, practically steaming from his ears as his younger boyfriend laughed, still trying to lean forwards to give Hakeyon another peck. Hongbin snorts.

“They’re such troublemakers,” he said with a shake of his head. Taekwoon hummed, watching the couple mess around, and Hongbin was immediately reminded of the revelation he came to the day before.

“So, uh, how are you doing?” he asked quickly, making a weak attempt at distracting Taekwoon from Sanghyuk and Hakyeon. It worked; Taekwoon turned to look at him, surprised.

“I’m doing well,” he said. “Busy with work and practice, like you guys.”

“That’s good to hear,” Hongbin fumbled with his words, scratching at the back of his neck. Sanghyuk had now pulled a chair up next to Hakyeon and was straddling it with his long legs, grinning whenever Hakyeon fed him a chip from the snack hoard he kept in his bag. “Make sure you’re taking care of yourself! During practice! So you don’t get, um, any injuries. That’d be bad, right?”

Taekwoon nodded in agreement. He looked a little amused at Hongbin’s stuttering attempts to speak. “I will,” he said. “I’ll say the same thing to you, since you’re the one whose knee is still healing.”

“I’ll be better by the time finals come around,” Hongbin said.

“Oh? Confident the cheerleading team will make it to finals then?” Taekwoon asked, but his tone wasn’t a mocking one. Hongbin smirked.

“Of course,” he said. “Who do you think we are? We’re gonna bring home a trophy bigger and shinier than the volleyball team’s.”

A competitive little spark flickered in Taekwoon’s eyes as he shook his bangs back, observing Hongbin with a beautiful, curved smile on his lips.

“We’ll see about that,” he answered calmly.

Hongbin opened his mouth, about to reply, but he sensed rather than heard a commotion behind him. He looked over his shoulder, and to his horror, a small crowd of girls had gathered in the classroom behind him. He shot Taekwoon a worried glance, and the elder student tilted his head, seeming just as hesitant as he was.

From the middle of the crowd a young girl stepped forwards. She had a first-year ribbon pinned to the front of her shirt, and in her hands she clutched a little envelope. Hongbin paled. This better not be what he thought it was.

The girls in the back were whispering to their friend, giving her little pushes forwards, and Hongbin swallowed hard. He didn’t get why the girls were being so pushy when the poor kid clearly didn’t want to be here. Someone must’ve spread the word around that he was in another classroom today and gathered a whole crew.

“Um,” he said, turning to face the girl properly. She deserved that much, at least.

But the girl just squeaked and practically threw the letter at him, leaving Hongbin to fumble with the flying envelope while she bolted out of the classroom with shocking speeds, leaving the fanclub behind in the dust. Hongbin stared after her, clutching the envelope, and someone off to the side commented, “Oh, gee, now I remember her, she’s one of the sprinters on the track team.”

Hongbin looked down at the letter, then back up to the fangirls, all watching him with hawk-like eyes, and gulped. But before he could potentially become their prey, Taekwoon suddenly stood, placed a hand at the base of his neck, and gently steered Hongbin through the mess of desks and right out of the classroom. Hongbin stumbled after Taekwoon until they made it down to the stairwell without any followers (probably thanks to Taekwoon’s intimidating looks).

“Ah, thanks,” he said sheepishly, coming to a halt at the top of the stairs. “Sometimes I don’t know what to do when they try to give me love letters or confessions.”

“It must be nice,” Taekwoon said, looking down at the envelope. “To get so much attention from girls.”

“What? No, no,” Hongbin spluttered, shaking his head. “I mean, some of them are nice and all, but like, no, they follow me everywhere and just giggle at everything I do and every year we have to ban them from sitting in on practice before competitions because they get too distracting. It’s... a bit difficult to handle, really.”

“Ah,” Taekwoon nodded. “I can understand that much, at least.”

“Have you got your own fanclub?” Hongbin teased, folding up the letter. He didn’t plan on reading it, but he didn’t want to throw it out either, not when the girl looked so shy. It felt rather mean.

“I don’t have a fanclub,” Taekwoon huffed, ducking his head. He had a slight flush to his cheeks, and Hongbin couldn’t help but marvel at how  _cute_  the volleyball team’s captain actually was. That whole frowny figure from before seemed like a distant memory already. “My teammates are a handful enough already.”

Hongbin snorted. “I can relate,” he sighed, leaning against the railings of the stairs. “I’m on a team with the loudest and most upbeat people in the school,  _and_  I’m childhood friends with the most boisterous one. There’s no escaping it.”

Taekwoon’s mouth turned down slightly at the corners, and Hongbin would’ve missed it if he hadn’t gotten more familiar with the various stages of pokerfaces Taekwoon had.

“You’re... childhood friends with Hakyeon?”

“I’ve known his since we were two,” Hongbin said, faking a sigh. “I’ll never be rid of him, that big dumb doofus, even if he is dating Sanghyuk now.”

“Oh,” Taekwoon hummed, looking down. Then, he straightened rather abruptly and said, “I’d better go back to class.”

Hongbin shifted, startled. “Huh? Already?”

“Yes,” Taekwoon nodded, long legs carrying him to the stairs. “The bell will ring soon. You should go back too,” he added, giving Hongbin a cursory glance over his shoulder as he climbed the steps at a brisk pace.

“Oh, yeah, okay then,” Hongbin replied, staring. Was it just his imagination, or did Taekwoon suddenly seem a lot more... removed? “I’ll see you—”

The door to the stairwell opened, and a stream of students came stumbling into the stairwell. In the midst of the crowd, Taekwoon vanished between uniforms and backpacks, and Hongbin was left standing on the landing, mouth open in confusion.

“—later?”

+

It wasn’t his imagination.

Something was off.

He didn’t know when his affections for Taekwoon had snuck up on him, but now that things had suddenly gotten awkward between them, Hongbin was left with a large Taekwoon-shaped gap in his daily routine. He wasn’t even aware that he could miss a relatively unobtrusive person so much until now.

His confusion didn’t slip by Hakyeon, even in his friend’s honeymoon stage of his relationship.

“You’ve been sighing a lot recently,” Hakyeon said, giving Hongbin a knowing glance when they went out for a meal after practice. Hongbin gave a one-shouldered shrug, staring blankly up at the neon menu above the cash counter. He felt especially tired today, after waking up early for morning practice, attending classes and studying, and then going for an afternoon workout. His muscles ached and his knee felt awful under it support.

“I dunno, I’m just in a bit of a funk right now, that’s all.”

“And would this funk happen to have anything to do with Taekwoon not hanging out with you anymore?” Damn Hakyeon and his overall orientation to details.

“No,” Hongbin mumbled, and Hakyeon gave him a stern look as they went up to order.

“Don’t lie to me, Bin, you know it doesn’t work.”

Hongbin made a big show of sighing and fishing some change out of his wallet to avoid answering, but when they sat down at their table and Hakyeon kicked his feet up onto the spare chair, sipping his iced tea with an expectant look on his face, Hongbin knew he wasn’t quite off the hook yet.

“Taekwoon’s just been distant recently, is all. He’s probably just busy.”

“He was busy before but he still chose to hang out with you and talk to you after practice,” Hakyeon pointed out. “Wonshik told me it was the most he’d ever seen Taekwoon interact outside of volleyball.”

Hongbin did a small double-take, trying to ignore the sudden flip of his heart. “What? Really?”

“Really,” Hakyeon said seriously, swirling one of the chicken nuggets around in the spicy ketchup. “It doesn’t look like he dislikes you; Taekwoon keeps a general rule of ignoring people who piss him off.”

A sudden thought occurred to him then, and it was the words he’d said to Taekwoon a few days ago—  _even if he is dating Sanghyuk now_.

Was that it? Had he made Taekwoon mad, by bringing up Hakyeon and Sanghyuk dating when he liked Hakyeon. Had Hongbin unknowingly rubbed salt into his wounds? He gulped, looking down at his burger.

“Hey now,” Hakyeon said, watching him closely. “You didn’t actually do anything dumb, did you?”

“No, I— I don’t think I did,” Hongbin mumbled, nervously bouncing his leg up and down. Hakyeon huffed and reclined in his chair, tilting his head.

“Try talking to him if it’s bothering you this much, Hongbin. And while you’re at it maybe try confessing too.”

“C-confess what!” Hongbin burst out, face colouring as he stared at Hakyeon. His friend flinched at his sudden yell and threw a fry at him.

“Stop shouting,” Hakyeon complained. “Haven’t you been pining for him too? Isn’t that why you’re upset?”

“I’m— I’m not pining,” Hongbin denied hotly, even as his cheeks heated up and his stomach flopped.  _Liar, liar_ , his brain chanted at him. Hakyeon made a face.

“ _Hongbin_. You’re not fooling me.”

“I don’t want to hear you dispensing love advice to me, Hakyeon, not after how long it took you and Sanghyuk to get together,” Hongbin warned, and Hakyeon snorted.

“True, but now I’m the one in a relationship, so I think I’m qualified to dish out some truths too, don’t you think?”

“Your head is so inflated,” Hongbin groaned, slumping forwards into the table top. He heard Hakyeon laugh above him, and felt a pat on his head.

“Just go talk to Taekwoon,” Hakyeon advised. “Get rid of all possible misunderstandings before the situation gets worse, right?”

Hongbin turned his cheek and fought to resist a pout. He stuck his tongue out, caught a fry, and reeled it in.

“I’m going to ask Wonshik about this,” he mused out loud, and bit down onto the fry with resolution. He would figure this out, alright.

+

“You think you pissed Taekwoon off?” Wonshik repeated, staring blankly at Hongbin, who had rather unceremoniously accosted the volleyball player near the end of their break. “Is that what happened?”

“You mean, you don’t know what’s going on?” Hongbin exclaimed incredulously. Wonshik scowled and pretended to jab him.

“It’s not like I can work out what goes on in his mind,” he complained. “But what on earth did you say that would’ve upset him? He’s not mad, by the way,” Wonshik added. “He’s been kind of zoned out, yes, and he’s back to being broody captain Jung, but this isn’t him being mad.”

A small amount of relief filled him momentarily, only to be replaced by nervousness when he finally admitted, “The other day I— brought up Hakyeon and Sanghyuk dating to him again.”

Wonshik blinked twice at him, and then said, “Um, okay? So?”

Hongbin huffed, planting his hands on his hips as he stared his friend down. “What do you mean, so! He’s probably mad at me for being insensitive about his feelings, or something along the lines of that, I don’t know. I mean, nobody wants their unrequited love shoved into their face.”

“Whoa, whoa, what unrequited love?” Wonshik demanded, eyebrows furrowing. “What the heck are you talking about?”

Hongbin pushed Wonshik in the shoulder with a roll of his eyes. “Oi, quit joking around. Taekwoon’s unrequited love for Hakyeon, you idiot,” he grumbled, even though the idea of Taekwoon liking Hakyeon managed to make his stomach flop in dejection. Come to think of it, he’s been feeling that way ever since he figured that out, way back when the fuss of Hakyeon and Sanghyuk getting together happened.

But then Wonshik’s eyes widened comically as he spluttered loudly, “Taekwoon isn’t in love with Hakeyon!”

Now it’s Hongbin’s turn to stare at Wonshik. “What— but then? Who? I thought he was upset that Hakyeon and Sanghyuk were dating because he liked—”

“You!” Wonshik cried, throwing his hands up into the air. “He likes  _you_ , Hongbin!”

It took all of Hongbin’s willpower to stay upright as his jaw dropped in shock. He clutched Wonshik’s shoulders, surprise and half-formed demands jumping around in his mind until he settled on, “But, what, how?”

“Oh my god,” Wonshik said, his tone a mixture of pure exasperation and amusement. “Oh my god, Hongbin, no, Taekwoon’s got a massive crush on you, but he thinks you’re the one who’s in love with Hakyeon, which was probably the reason why he got upset when you started talking about him!”

“No,” Hongbin shouted in horror; just the thought of him and Hakyeon, together! A shudder ran up his spine and he wailed, trying to shake it off. “Hakyeon’s like my  _brother_! What the hell!”

“Don’t tell me that,” Wonshik said, and he was laughing now. “I  _told_  the idiot that you weren’t interested in Hakyeon that way, but he didn’t believe me, and look where we are now.”

“I have to find him,” Hongbin said, holding his head in his hands as he willed himself to breathe normally. “I can’t let him walk around thinking I want to date Hakyeon, that can’t happen, no way.”

“Yes, go on and tell him,” Wonshik nodded, holding his sides as he snorted with laughter. “Oh, this was  _such_  a misunderstanding, I can’t stop laughing.”

“What do the third-years have for last period?” Hongbin demanded, and Wonshik paused, wracking his brain.

“Phys. Ed. outside, I believe?”

The words were barely out of his mouth before Hongbin was already turning on his heel and dashing down the hall.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Wonshik shouted.

“I’m going to set things straight!” he yelled back over his shoulder, and then he was rounding the corner and sprinting off.

+

True to Wonshik’s word, the third years were indeed making their way out of their classrooms and towards the gyms on the other side of the school, duffle bags slung over their shoulders as they piled out of their rooms. Hongbin stumbled into the crowd, desperately squeezing past his seniors as he threw countless apologies over his shoulder. His heart nearly stopped when he spotted Taekwoon walking down the staircase amongst his classmates, and he hollered “Taekwoon! Wait!” at the top of his lungs, ignoring the strange looks he was getting from the third-years.

But Taekwoon didn’t turn around, and for a moment Hongbin felt like he’d been doused by cold water, but then Taekwoon turned on the stairwell and Hongbin could see the headphones in his ear. Biting his lip, he chased after them, shouting the whole way.

“Taekwoon! Wait! Taekwoon!”

He wasn’t even sure what it was he’d say if Taekwoon did stop—  _hey, just so you know, that crush you thought I had on my best friend? Nah! That’s not real, it’s you I’ve got my eyes on!_

But then one of Taekwoon’s classmate caught sight of him running and yelling manically, and he helpfully tapped Taekwoon on the shoulder and pointed up the staircase. Taekwoon did turn then, and when he saw Hongbin running full speed at him, his eyebrows arched and he snatched his headphones out of his ears, staring. Hongbin nearly let out a sigh of relief; it didn’t look like Taekwoon was going to run from him, so this might work out after all.

Except, it was the moment his poor knee decided that it had had enough of all the strenuous chasing, and quit on him.

Panic seized Hongbin as he tripped on the stairs, knee twisting awkwardly on the step as he fell. His hand touched the rail, but his grip slipped because of his horrendously clammy palms. Just when it looked like a horrible end was near, a blur came streaking up the steps and the next thing Hongbin knew he was colliding face first into Taekwoon’s chest.

The older student staggered under Hongbin’s weight, but caught him nonetheless, and for a moment the two of them clutched at each other, breathing hard. Hongbin could feel his heart beating frantically in his ribcage— and his condition, of course, was not helped when Taekwoon spoke, his voice rumbling in Hongbin’s ears because of their close proximity.

“Are you okay? Did you hit anything?” Taekwoon demanded, looking down at Hongbin, and Hongbin had to duck his head, only wincing slightly when he tried to put some weight on his leg.

“I’m alright—”

“It’s your knee, isn’t it?” Taekwoon said, and when Hongbin nodded after a moment’s hesitation, Taekwoon made a noise in the back of his throat and immediately slung Hongbin’s arm over his shoulder.

“Let’s go to the infirmary,” Taekwoon said, even as Hongbin spluttered and tried to tell him  _no, it’s okay, I only wanted to impulsively confess to you and clear up this whole misunderstanding_. But Taekwoon had already asked a worried Eunkwang to tell their teacher where he’d gone before helping Hongbin hobble down the stairs and down the hall. He could feel his face heat up magnificently under all the third year’s stares, and resolutely fixed his gaze at the hem of Taekwoon’s gym shorts and tried not to trip again. 

The nurse was out when they wandered in, so Taekwoon simply left Hongbin on one of the beds while he bustled about, opening and closing cupboards with a kind of familiarity that made Hongbin hope Taekwoon hadn’t spent a lot of time in the infirmary because of volleyball related injuries.

“Here, ice,” Taekwoon said, returning with an ice pack wrapped up in a towel. He bent down, arranged it on Hongbin’s knee, and actually took Hongbin’s hands in his own while he showed Hongbin how to hold the pack properly. “Don’t move it. I’m going to get some muscle balm— actually, maybe the one I have in my bag will be better than the ones here—”

“Taekwoon,” Hongbin interrupted, and when the older student turned to look at him, Hongbin’s forced the words out of his mouth before he could lose the last shreds of courage he’d managed to scrape together. “Taekwoon, I like you.”

Even though he immediately felt like throwing himself under the blanket and burrowing into the pillow out of sheer embarrassment, Hongbin certainly didn’t mind seeing Taekwoon’s face go scarlet as he froze, mouth falling open comically.

“Y-you wh-what?” Taekwoon stammered, uncharacteristically flustered, and Hongbin had to put in real effort in pulling himself back together because a flustered Taekwoon was a really, really _cute_ Taekwoon.

“I like you,” he repeated, steadying his shaky voice. “And I know you thought that I liked Hakyeon and through some horrible misunderstanding I thought that you like Hakyeon too, but I just want to point out dating Hakyeon is the last thing I ever want to do because he’s as good as a brother to me, and he acts like my second mom too, which would really make things weird, and I’m rambling now, please stop me.”

Taekwoon managed to retrieve his hanging jaw long enough to walk back to Hongbin’s side. His hands were fidgeting restlessly, like he didn’t know what to do with them until Hongbin carefully reached out and caught them. Then Taekwoon let out a long sigh, hanging his head, and Hongbin could see the red tinting his cheeks.

“That explains a lot,” Taekwoon mumbled, and Hongbin couldn’t hold back the burst of laughter that escaped him. Taekwoon dropped his head even lower, if possible, and he nearly stumbled into the bed when he sat down next to Hongbin. Their hands were still connected, given how Taekwoon was working on lacing their fingers together. Hongbin marvelled at the amount of strength Taekwoon’s thin fingers actually had, grinning a little to himself as he squeezed back.

“I like you,” Taekwoon confessed abruptly, and then coughed before adding, “Too,” unnecessarily at the end. Hongbin stifled a laugh before catching Taekwoon’s eye.

“That’s good, because I probably would’ve buried myself out of embarrassment if you didn’t. Hakyeon would also never let me live it down.”

“Mmm,” Taekwoon shudered, probably thinking of his own teammates. “Should we— now that— um, do you—”

“Let’s go on a date,” Hongbin blurted out, trashing his brain-to-mouth filter at this point, because the two of them are burning so red it’s a miracle steam isn’t coming out of their ears. He almost envied the easygoing way Hakyeon and Sanghyuk interacted with each other, but there was also kind of endearing the way Taekwoon looked like he was ready to faint with shyness, so Hongbin can’t really say he minded (or maybe that’s just him getting light-headed; same thing, right?)

“Yes,” Taekwoon nodded, looking infinitely relieved that Hongbin voiced that out. “Yes, let’s do that sometime. But first,” Taekwoon gave his knee a cursory glance and shook his head. “I am going to bandage that and you are going to stay off your feet until school is over.”

“Are you gonna play nurse for me?” Hongbin asked, blinking innocently up at Taekwoon, and he got a little whack to the neck for his teasing.

But that was quickly followed up with a hair ruffle and one of Taekwoon’s rare, gentle smiles, and he thinks that he can’t possibly be faulted for collapsing sideways onto the bed out of sheer giddiness after that.

+

So, to sum up a high school crush in a few words?

Hongbin would have to say it’s pretty darn awesome.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°


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